It seems a crowd of people on Twitter have a stick up their...oh wait....that got us in trouble a while back. Anyway. A few days ago it seems everyone was up in arms over Kodak CMO Jeffrey Hayzlett DMing all his followers about his new book. Some have labeled it spam. We say everyone needs to relax and pull the stick out of their...oops...can't go there. Some cause group will be up our...oops...can't go there either.
So here's the deal. Hazlett can't DM anyone unless they're following him. If people follow someone, they have an interest in what they person has to say. By default, it's assumed they'd be interested in a book written by that person. It's the same thing as opting into an email newsletter. No one dubs that spam.
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The social graph. Data portability. Privacy. Data control. These are the pressing issues marketers face (or should be) when it comes to social media and how everyone (publishers, advertisers and users) can play nice together and all win. Peerset CTO and Co-founder Amit Kanigsberg has a few things to share on this topic.
Time to lose the training wheels
First off, I'll state that I'm not getting onto the "let's tear down Facebook bandwagon." I have a tempered attitude towards the changing social networking landscape - as much as I do enjoy a well-placed tirade. There are a lot of people predicting Facebook's demise, but the fact is there are a lot of smart parties at the table with an interest in not imploding. I'd rather talk about more fundamental forces, largely external to Facebook that will contribute to shifts, particularly as it relates to privacy, data and ad relevancy.
In short, I believe that social networking sites have acted as the training wheels for our online social aptitude. They have allowed us to discover and explore the potential for social networking, while developing the foundation for a broader and truly distributed online experience. We're about ready to take off the training wheels.
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- Yawn. Another Cannes Young Lions WaterAid entry. Oh wait. This one's got booty. And a toilet shot.
- VH1 continues its decent into bizarro world.
- Burger King in Norway is giving credits towards a Hot Salsa Burger using he Facebook Like button. Ten Likes gets a person a free burger.
- The Real L Word. Yes, it's real.
- That's what I want to see on the sidewalk. A giant armpit.
- The Boy Scouts of America is out with a new advergame from Relish Studio. Is nothing sacred?
- Capital University has created a virtual campus tour on Facebook to attract students.
- Want to prank your friends? Captain Morgan has a Facebook app for you.
This is a guest post by Big Fuel Communications CEO Avi Savar. If you've every wanted to know anything about mommy bloggers and what brands are doing in this space then this article id for you.
Authentic Connections
Did Mom invent social media? Some say she did. And there is no arguing that she is driving it and helping it to evolve. There are 82 million moms across the U.S. of all ages. That's right, 82 million. And 26 million of them are mommy bloggers. And they are grassroots, Oprah-like brand advocates with loyal followers who can change the trajectory of a brand and its products.
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Friend and former Adrants Editor Angela Natividad, now living the life in Paris, sent along some information about a project she's involved with. We like it so we want her to tell you about it.
"French fashion photographer David Ken recently decided that people, particularly people in Paris, accumulate too many reasons to be gloomy and too few reasons to smile. So he decided to take a hiatus from paying work and embark on a mission.
Hence the LOL Project, his effort to photograph 1000 portraits of Parisians in the midst of genuine laughter. He's already struck a deal with the mayor of the city, who's agreed to let him turn the city into a huge laughing gallery under the banner 'I LOL Paris.'
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Did you know that 50 percent of the world's artistic heritage is in Italy? Did you know most Italians aren't impressed by this? Saatchi & Saatchi, Milan set out to change this anomaly with a social media campaign that would "encourage Italians to rediscover the artistic wonders of their country."
In planning the campaign, the agency wondered, "What do young Italians do on social networks?" The answer? They watch nonsense videos. So the agency set out to create a campiagn that would compare the much loved nonsense videos to viewing a masterpiece.
Facebook. YouTube. Planted nonsense videos. Here's how they did it all.
With more brands jumping on the bandwagon, a PQ Media study found social media sponsorships grew 13.9% to $46 million in 2009.
PQ Media defines social media sponsorships as "a digital word-of-mouth marketing segment in which brands provide material compensation, such as cash, products, points or trips, to social media content creators to promote and/or review their products and services through long-form text or status updates, often with accompanying visuals."
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Today around 12:30PM EST, a glitch on Twitter caused everyone's Following and Followers count to read zero. That's right. No one's following anyone and no one's being followed. Except, of course, that's no really true. We still see all our followers in the stream. And others report the same.
How did this happen? Earlier today, Gizmodo reported a method that would allow any Twitter user to force another to follow them simply by typing "accept" and the person's username. Shortly thereafter, all Twitter counts fell to zero. It would seem Twitter caught wind of the glitch and is now madly trying to apply a fix. Though, in doing so, they (we hope temporarily) have wiped out everyone's Follow and Follower count.
So yes. Today, social media has temporarily died. People are flipping out. It's the end of the world. And it's hilarious. Really, really hilarious.
UPDATE: Well, that was fun while it lasted. At around 2PM EST Follow and Follower counts were restored.
Oh, Chatroulette, how we used to love you so. Back in the day before anyone had heard of you. Back before people could pleasure themselves in peace before everyone found out that's all anyone does on Chatroulette. And back before every brand in the world decided Chatroulette is the new Second Life.
Here we have Amsterdam-based condom shop Condomerie using a "topless" hottie holding a sign which, at first, lets the viewer think they've struck masturbatory gold. Then the young lady holds the sign up and the viewer is presented with, "You are now in touch with a HIV infected person. Don't play Russian roulette in real life." Way to bring a guy down.
Of course this is completely stupid and the targeting is idiotic. First of all, no one needs a condom to masturbate. And, second, no matter how prolific a person's Chatroulette orgasm may be, there will never be an exchange of bodily fluids and, hence, no chance of becoming infected with HIV.
Can we move on from Chatroulette now?
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- It's global branding of another sort: How Americans See Europe.
- If you want to see a bad Photoshop job. Or if you just want to see a hot woman in her bikini.
- More from the lady who loves to create ads inside Second Life which feature but, busty avatars.
- An old Old Spice ad.
- Not new but worth a look. Agency (almost) shoots kitty to illustrate the qualities of good advertising.
- Thought: If social media didn't exist, would P&G have the problem they are currently having with their Cruisers and Swaddlers diapers?
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